I am making a 12 string 39 chord "auto dulcimer" but have never actually owned an autoharp, so videos like this are perfect for me, because I literally don't have a clue. You have saved me several hours of experimenting. Thanks!

I have the book on repair but no one tells you all this information. You are very knowledgeable, and I am certainly grateful you shared this information. Made notes in notepad.

Your video is super informative. I'm getting ready to re-felt my entire autoharp. I realized I can mark it with existing felt before I remove them and replace with new felt. At least, I hope this works. I loved your idea of marking the bars! Very practical!

Hal, thanks a lot for your videos for putting on new strings and cutting new felts. I found a 70 year old 12 chord Autoharp on eBay for $50 and it needed two strings, 1 & 36. I also wanted to make a custom chord bar to replace the G min. , a chord I've never used in my life. When I carefully took off one cap of the chord assembly and removed the bar, I was thrilled to discover that all the felts were in pristine condition with no signs whatsoever of having been played, absolutely cherry condition. Your videos made it a lot less stressful for me than it might have been, thanks again. Mark

Thanks for this, about to make some custom chord bars

Scared to do this, but Hal explained this well and going to give this a go!

Very helpful! I just yesterday re glued felt to 2 chord bars and foolishly decided to widen the notches a bit on a couple of base string notches. Now my 'harp sounds like either pots and pans being banged on NY's Eve (one) and the other sounds like none of the base notes sound at all, just thump thump thump....so back to the drawing board. I highly doubt it was the re gluing to felts to the chord bar that is causing the ruckus. I'll glue the divits back in and test it out. Luckily I have a new roll of felt if I need to re felt everything.

Excellent lesson in felting a harp. Enjoyed watching, and learning. Will use this info down the road. Would like to know where you purchase your felt rolls of good quality. Seen some being sold on eBay but they looked a bit poor in quality. The better the quality of the felt the better job of refelting is done. I live in Canada and Music stores don't seem to carry the replacement felt even though they should have it available for the user, as I mean they are a music store that should have replacement supplies right? Having felt shipped in across the border from the USA is expensive, do you know of a place in Canada where good quality autoharp felt can be bought? Maybe an alternative place where felt could be bought and cut to the right sized length needed for a harp bar?

Great informative videos. Thanks 🎶

I'm not clear about something. When you shim the comb all the bars will be raised the same amount on that side of the harp. But if you are re-felting with a different thickness of felt on only some of the bars, you will want to shim some bars and not shim others. So do you add shims on the ends of the individual bars that have thicker felt? If you shim the comb it would raise all the bars the same height.

You're a gem! Thanks!

What glue would you use of the new felt refuses to stick to the cord bar with the glue backing it has on it? I just bought new felt for a harp I own, and after cleaning the bar of the old felt as you stated above, it refuses to remain stuck to the cord bar after removing the cover tape that's over the sticky section? Note bar has metal sides and top, but a wood bottm.

I have an old Oscar Schmidt autoharp (not the black box) and it desperately needs new felts. Im pretty poor, so unfortunately im unable to afford shipping it to be repaired. I lost my job due to a disability. Also, there isn't anyone close to me who knows how to do that. Do you think I'd be able to do the work myself? I have no experience. Thanks for any information. Thank you for your helpful and informative videos. I really like autoharp videos. Sincerely, Aaron

I remember watching you do this in the 1980's.

And Hal, could you make a video with tips on how to figure out what chords to press for melodies or maybe how to find the correct chords?

Where can you get the felt you refelt the chord bars?

Hey Hal, that broken glass shattering noise was too loud and startling :( But thanks for the video! I just re-felt my harp for the first time, and wish I had had this video.

Does lowes or Home Depot sell these felt strips? Thankyou so much for this smart lesson on refret.

Just refelted for the 1st time and on 1 chord bar (F) I'm getting harmonic overtones on some strings that should be dead. Felt looks like it's making good contact, but I still get octave overtones on C#4, especially. Any suggestions?